Barcelona Creates BBM Channel

Model of FC Barcelona's new stadium

If you are a BlackBerry user and are interested in news from FC Barcelona, you will pleased to know that the football club has created its own BBM Channel to provide its latest news and information via BlackBerry Messenger. If you would like to join, go to BlackBerry Messenger on your compatible  smartphone, select channels and search for "Futbol Club Barcelona", select the channel and join.

Forget the 4Ps of Marketing

Say hello to the 4Cs digital marketing: creating, curating, culture and connection.

Forget the 4Ps of Marketing and Embrace the 4Cs of Digital Marketing

Creating: You have to create outstanding content that engages people and keeps them coming back for more.

Curating: You are not the only one with great content, curate the outstanding content from other people or sources.

Culture: By the time you create and curate outstanding and exceptional content from you and other people consistently, it becomes a culture for you and it acquires its own unique identity.

Connection: You connect with people who believe in the culture you have created and they become your advocates who passionately believe in, promote and defend your brand which is what every serious marketer wants.

This Week's KAL Cartoon: Enter the Dragon

LOL!

Source: +The Economist 

Do you understand this cartoon? Let me know if you do by dropping a comment.

Watch some cool stunts

Nice car stunts!



Please do not try this, this guy you are watching is a professional o!

Barack Obama Meets and Plays Soccer with Honda's Asimo Robot

This is a first...very soon some people will be campaigning that robots be treated like people!



Obviously the robot is a better footballer, sorry "soccer player" than President Obama.

Facebook Acquires Moves the Fitness App

Facebook is not slowing down on its acquisition run, just a few weeks after acquiring messaging app WhatsApp, the company has acquired ProtoGeo Oy, a Finnish company that owns Moves, an iOS and Android fitness app. They say "health is wealth" and Facebook obviously seeks to cash-in on this. A statement from ProtoGeo on its website reads:

"

Today, we’re delighted to announce that Facebook has acquired our company and the Moves app. Since we launched Moves, we’ve been focused on running a simple and clean activity diary that millions of people have enjoyed using.

Now, we’re joining Facebook’s talented team to work on building and improving their products and services with a shared mission of supporting simple, efficient tools for more than a billion people. "

It would be interesting to see what Facebook does with its portfolio of acquisitions in the future.

Lessons Nigerians Should Learn from the sack of David Moyes

President Goodluck Jonathan and David Moyes: 2 under-fire leaders based on bad results, One was fired recently

Nigerians are football freaks and there is nothing that unites us more than it especially when our senior national team, the Super Eagles are playing. However, this post is not about the Super Eagles, it is more about Manchester United and David Moyes who was unceremoniously sacked as manager on Tuesday for poor performance. 

The keyword here is performance, Manchester United is a great football club and much of its greatness can be attributed to their legendary manager who handpicked Moyes as his successor, Sir Alex Ferguson. He left the club at the end of the 2012/13 season with the English Premier League title after spending 26 years at the club winning 38 trophies including 13 Premier League titles and 2 UEFA Champions League trophies. 

Hence, a lack-lustre season without winning any major trophy and failure to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League cost David Moyes his job after a lot of pressure from Manchester United fans including the large number from Nigeria. They just could not tolerate the failure.

This brings me nicely to our country, Nigeria, performance of a leader and tolerance of failure. The Nigerian constitution states in Section 14 Subsection 2b (as amended) that: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…” Essentially this implies that if government fails at everything else, it must not fail at providing security for Nigerians.

Therefore, it is shocking that Nigeria’s federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan continues to play ignorance of this sacred duty and perpetually positions itself as a “victim” of the violence that has killed thousands of Nigerians since his election in 2011 under different manifestations; electoral violence, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen vs. farmers, extra-judicial killings by security forces, even the recruitment exercise under the direct supervision of the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro. For each and every one of these problems, the government of President Jonathan cannot be said to have met the standard set by the constitution which he swore to uphold.

This piece is not meant to ask for a dramatic change in Aso Rock because we have elections in 2015 to sort that out and I will God-willing have enough time to write about that later. However, it is absolutely imperative that Nigerians put immense pressure on President Jonathan to ensure that he uses the considerable resources and tools at his disposal as President and Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces to quell the wanton killings, maiming and kidnapping that ravages our country even as I type. We must learn from Manchester United and not settle for abysmal failure, we are not yet at the end of our season (4-year term) but we should make it absolutely clear to the president that he has to start delivering as our leader not because he expects to be rewarded with a second term but it because it is solemn duty and we demand it.

We citizens of Nigeria as followers need to start holding our leaders accountable and demand performance at all levels from the local government chairman to the highest office because as we have learnt through Manchester United, not every man is “man” enough to be a leader; some have to be pushed to do their duty and should be changed at the earliest opportunity through constitutional means.

See Girl Living in Drainage Pipe Getting Ready for School

Girl and mother living in drainage pipe!
Source: +Amusing World 

Unbelieveable, we should be grateful for what we have. Their poverty is great!

How to be an independent journalist in war zones

Useful tips,

OnePlus One Specifications

Are you like me in the sense that you feel that most of the top-end smart phones are overpriced? If you are, you will love this post because I am going to be presenting you with information about a great phone packed with top-end specifications at a lower cost than its established rivals.

This smartphone is the product of OnePlus, a new Chinese start-up headed by Peter Lau, it is called the OnePlus One and it comes at $299 for 16-GB version and the $349 to the 64-GB version. Compare this to to flagship phones like Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G2 and HTC One (M8) that cost $649.

It runs on a open source modified version of Android 4.4 KitKat called CyanogenMod which is a more secure version of the OS.

I think I have said enough, now, have a look at its specifications.

The OnePlus One might be the hottest smartphone revelation of 2014

OnePlus One Specs

Design

OS:                    Android (4.4) CyanogenMod 11S UI                         

Dimensions:        6.02 x 2.99 x 0.35 inches (152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9)                         

Weight:               5.71 oz (162 g) the average is 4.8 oz (137 g)                                                                         

Display                                

Physical size:       5.5 inches                           

Resolution:          1080 x 1920 pixels                           

Pixel density:       401 ppi                 

Technology:         IPS LCD                

Colors:                16 777 216                            

Camera                                               

Camera:              13 megapixels                    

Flash:                  Dual LED                

Aperture size:      F2.0                       

Focal length:        (35mm equivalent)                                                                                           

Camcorder:         3840x2160 (4K), 1280x720 (720p HD) (120 fps)                    

Recording format:             MPEG4                

Features                                            

Front-facing camera:       5 megapixels                                                                     

System chip:                  Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974-AC                      

Processor:                     Quad core, 2500 MHz, Krait 400                

Graphics processor:       Adreno 330                        

System memory:            3072 MB RAM (Dual-channel, 1866 MHz) / LPDDR3                          

Built-in storage:             16 GB                 

Battery                               

Capacity:                      3100 mAh                           

Type:                            Li - Polymer   

Availability      

Scheduled release:         Q2 2014              

                                               

                              

This Week's KAL Cartoon

Interesting...

Ryan Giggs Replaces David Moyes as Interim Manager at Manchester United

Ryan Giggs is to Manage Manchester United for the rest of the season

Manchester United have announced that club legend, Ryan Giggs will replace sacked David Moyes as Interim Manager. It will be interesting to see how Giggs can manage the team with three games left in the season and whether he might get the job permanently. In addition, will he field himself as a player-manager?

Breaking News: Manchester United Sack David Moyes

Tweets from @ManUtd confirming David Moyes Sack by the club

Manchester United manager, David Moyes has been sacked by the club this morning. This follows an abysmal season where United will not win any trophy and are certainly out of the UEFA Champions League for next season. Many of the clubs fans had been unhappy with the poor results under David Moyes and it seems a 0-2 defeat to his former club, Everton proved to be the last straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

Correcting the misconception: An Election is Not an Excuse for Failure

There is an increasing noise coming from the camp of President Goodluck Jonathan's supporters that the terrorism and mass killings that Nigerians have been subjected to are a ploy to prevent him from contesting the 2015 presidential elections. Hence, they have conveniently forgotten that he is currently president and has the primary duty of protecting the life and property of Nigerians. It is unfortunate that the president and his supporters continue to exhibit a gross inability to govern effectively. They seem more focused on the perks of office and the great resources at their disposal and are not interested in stopping the wanton destruction of lives and property particularly in the Northeastern part of Nigeria.

A critical look at the major sources of insecurity in Nigeria indicate two major sources being Boko Haram and the conflict between Fulani herdsman and farmers in Northern Nigeria. In both instances, the parties involved have continually shown a lack of interest in politics particular the seat of President that Goodluck Jonathan is so covetous of even whilst he occupies it. Boko Haram have made it clear that they are against western institutions one of which is the presidency. The Fulani are well-known to focus almost their entire lives to their cattle, taking power from Goodluck Jonathan does not align with this objective.

Therefore, it is very dubious for the president and his supporters to seek to hide his failure as a leader to provide adequate security for Nigerians under the toga of an "evil" opposition. The president of Nigeria is also the Commander-in-Chief of its armed forces for a reason; to be able to deal decisively with all external and internal aggression. If he is failing, he should take responsibility for that failure rather than seek to divide Nigerians along partisan, tribal or religious lines.

Nigeria is bigger than any Nigerian and the country cannot and should not be plunged into anarchy because of the incompetence and failure of leadership of a single president.

Assessing Leaders: A key Function of Followers

A quick look at the headlines of any major Nigerian newspaper will convince any astute observer that Nigeria is suffering from a leadership crisis, if it is not Boko Haram killing tens to hundreds of people and ransacking whole communities, it might be Fulani herdsmen doing the same, schools are no longer safe as students can be killed, kidnapped and violated almost effortlessly by any groups that is sufficiently evil enough to carry out these heinous crimes. Perhaps more disturbing than all of these as serious as they are is the poor and many times shocking responses we get from those whose duty it is to first prevent and in the event that they fail in this regard, fight and curb such heinous crimes. We have heard and read statements that "educate" us that terrorism is a global problem and we should be prepared to bear our own portion of it as if there is some irresistable authority or power that makes it compulsory for us. What about other countries that have never experienced such? Do they have angels living and ruling there? Another example is the outright falsehood coming from the defence headquarters that only 8 girls out of those kidnapped in Chibok are still missing after the rescue of about 80 others.

The purpose of this write-up is not to lament Nigeria's many self-induced problems but to present a framework for we the followers to effectively assess our leaders and hold them accountable based on such assessment.

Leaders are not judged by efforts but by results. You will almost certainly not find a politician that will come out during campaign for election saying: "I will try to do this or that for you". What you hear them say is: "I will do this and that for you". Why do they say this? It is because they understand that people want leaders that will deliver and not leaders that will "make efforts". Based on this understanding, there is no basis to accept the explanation of many Nigerian leaders be they the president, governors or ministers that they are "making efforts" at achieving things when it is obvious they are not delivering results.

To make this easier to understand for some of my readers, I will use football as an example. Nigerians love football and the coach of our national team, the Super Eagles is almost always under pressure to deliver results. You can be sure that bad results will cost him his job regardless of any "efforts" he has put into it. Samson Siasia is a good football coach having brought talents like Mikel Obi and Emmanuel Emenike to the spotlight during his time as U-20 and Super Eagles coach as well as guiding Nigeria to the silver medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. However, he failed to qualify Nigeria for 2012 Africa Nations Cup and he got sacked as a result. Despite the fact that he is a good coach, he rightfully got assessed and fired on his result. His successor then guided the Super Eagles to win the Africa Nations Cup in 2013. From not qualifying to becoming champions in one year.

This example shows us as Nigerians how we should assess our leaders without sentiments and based on results. A government that cannot defend its citizens from insurgents under any guise has failed and should be truthfully assessed as such. There is still a huge problem with electricity supply in Nigeria, even Aso Rock, the official Presidential residence has a significant budget for running generators, this clearly indicates that the presidency does not have belief in its own capacity to have stable and constant electricity supply in the third year of a four-year tenure.

If Nigerians are to be honest assessors, President Goodluck Jonathan's administration is failing on the most critical things important to us; security and electricity. We should stop making excuses for this government and demand better performance in the remaining year it has left.

Guy gets kicked in the head whilst taking selfie

This is the new "craze" that is trending on the Internet, people taking pictures of themselves and posting it online tagged as "selfies". This man, Jared Micheal gets kicked by a train engineer whilst taking his "selfie" beside an oncoming train. Serves him right for being so thoughtless?

How to generate traffic to your blog with the 50:50 formula

There are hundreds of millions of bloggers around the world who blog for all sorts of reasons. However, I am yet to come across a single blogger that does not want to increase traffic to their blog.

How to achieve this is perhaps the most blogged about topic in the world. In fact, it is what you are reading right now.

I am introducing to you what I call the 50:50 formula to blogging success. It simply entails dividing the amount of time you have dedicated to blogging into 2 equal parts- the first part is for you to research and post quality content that people would love to read and share with their friends.

The second part is to engage in promotional activities for your blog. The list of such activities is almost endless; sharing your posts on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and many more. Guest blogging, commenting on other blogs, groups, forums and other places where you have large numbers of people that might be interested in your content.

You should dedicate as much time between improving your ability to effectively promote your blog and creating fantastic content.

If you do this, you would be helping yourself generate more traffic and exposure to your blog at little or no cost to you and in a relatively shorter time than if you just focused on one of these activities to the detriment of the other.

Kindly share this post with your friends if you find it useful and interesting. I would also love to read your thoughts on it, do drop a comment.

DSS Spokesperson Speaks on Nyanya Bombing

Do you agree with her that Nigerians have not done enough to fight terrorism?

I feel that instead of using national media like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as tools to "campaign" for President Goodluck Jonathan even before such is supposed to start, they should be used to constantly educate Nigerians on the greatest security threats we face and how to work with the security agents to curb them.

It is irresponsible for any agency of government to blame citizens for such heinous crimes when the government itself has not done enough to empower us. Another case-in-point is the failure to install CCTV cameras throughout Abuja and the stalled project in Lagos. 

21 Essential SEO Tips for Google

So, you want to drive huge traffic to your website or blog using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), try these tips:

'Blood Moon' Eclipse Has Many Spellbound in North and South America

A rare occurrence...

 

The moon seen in the time around a total lunar eclipse in Montevideo, Uruguay. However, sky watchers in northern and and eastern Europe, eastern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were out of luck, according to US space agency NASA. AFP

 

‘Blood Moon’ Eclipse dazzles sky watchers across North and South America

Night owls and early risers in North America watched the rare celestial event on Tuesday as the Earth’s sunset-hued shadow fell across the moon, shifting its colour to bright orange. Images of a total lunar eclipse in the Americas.

 View more pictures of  the 'blood moon' here.

Freelancer Acquires Warrior Forum

Freelancer.com which calls itself  "the World's Largest Outsourcing Marketplace" has acquired the Warrior Forum which is the the largest Internet marketing forum in a move that makes a lot of sense to me because they both have the self-employed or work-from-home, Internet marketing kind of membership. The deal is said to be worth $3.2 million.

The Warrior Forum has been acquired by Freelancer for $3.2 million

In a statement by Matt Barrie, Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, Warrior Forum was started by Allen Says in 1997 and now has more than 730,000 members. Changes to the new Warrior Forum under the management of the Freelancer team include:

* All WSO listings will now be reduced from $40 to $20 and

* All War Room members will have their 20 year membership extended to lifetime, immediately. Moving forward new memberships will be $20 per year.

It will be interesting to see how Freelancer builds on the Warrior Forum and how its loyal members will react to the ownership change.